Tuesday, January 12, 2010

An Organized 2010

Welcome to 2010 Everyone! How do we say it..is it twenty ten? Just ten? I'm still not sure.

Everyone likes to make New Year's Resolutions and start fresh each year. While I didn't really make new years resolutions, I did want to start fresh in my home. Last week I started reorganizing most of the rooms in our home. I didn't realize how bad we needed it! I thought I'd share with you what I did to give you a little motivation to organize your home if you need it. I am still not done..I need to finish my pantry, bathrooms, and youngest son's room. Oh, and our kitchen. But that's a major work in progress. We are in the process of giving it a facelift with new paint, tile, backsplash, etc so it will be a while before I can put it back together. But when I do, it will be really organized!

So here's what I've done so far. First task was my files. I'm definitely a file person. I like everything to have a place to go instead of just landing on my desk. In the past, I've always had handwritten file folders. I don't have the prettiest handwriting so I have always wanted a labeler. Well, knowing my personality and my love for organizing, my mom gave me one at Christmas! I was so excited. You can see my labeler in its place on my desk below. You can pick these up at Target/Walmart for less than $20.

Next was my desk space in general. After our second baby was born this summer, we had to move our "office" into the dining area. So I like to try to keep it fairly tidy because anyone that walks in our home will see it. Plus, I just need it clean for my sanity. It easily gets things piled up but with my new system, it has seemed to stay pretty clean over the last week. Hopefully we can keep it up. There's no magic system I used here. Just straightened and put a tiered file organizer next to the printer. That definitely made a huge difference. I wish I had some before photos to show the difference. What isn't shown in the photo is I added a mail sorter (that I found in a closet and completely forgot I had). I labeled each section with deposits, bills to be paid/filed, and outgoing mail.

The next room may seem like nothing to most of you. However, if you've ever been in my bedroom, you know that this is a great improvement. Before last week, we had this beautiful green armoire/entertainment piece in our room. It was at the end of our bed and took the place of a dresser or chest of drawers. We love the piece of furniture and it has served many purposes over the years. (Leigh Ann and I used it as a dresser in college, then Matt and I used it in our apartment and rental house for an entertainment center, then it went back to being a dresser in this house.) It was beautiful but LARGE. And our bedroom isn't. It took up a lot of room and was not what I wanted long term as our bedroom furniture. So for Christmas we asked for

IKEA gift cards in order to purchase a dresser we had picked out. However, we didn't want to part ways forever with our beloved armoire, so Leigh Ann offered to bring it to her house to make a craft cabinet or for other storage. (I'm really hoping it turns into a craft cabinet!) That

way, when we move we could get it back if we had the space for it. Soo...long story to show you our newly organized bedroom. Having to move clothes to the dresser allowed me to purge my entire closet. And now the closet is nice and organized as well.

And last but DEFINITELY not least, my oldest son's room. It has been a thorn in my side for months. I tried a couple of methods of organizing his toys but was never happy with any of it. I attempted a toy box and now know that I am not a fan of those. If you like to just have one place to throw everything and hide it, then this is the method for you. And that's ok. But I'm not one of those people. And my son didn't like it either. When he was looking for a toy and couldn't find it, he didn't like that. He's only 2, but he's definitely got some of my tendencies haha. Over the last few months, I started visualizing what I wanted to be able to accomplish in his room. I needed bins and a bookshelf. I wanted a place for puzzles, craft supplies, crayons, cars, blocks, etc. I started picking up bins on sale and even asked for some for Christmas. Some of you are thinking "Seriously? Storage bins?" And I'm sure you can guess who came through with those..Leigh Ann, of course! So here it is. In all its glory.

Top: Shelf where we keep the puzzle rack, crayons, coloring books, sketch pads, games and much more. Bottom: Bins in his closet. The large one is FULL of cars. These slide in and out when needed. And what's better..he knows to clean up one bin before getting out another bin. So the bin method really works for us! And it literally takes 1 minute to clean his room!

His book nook. I frequently find him sitting in his bean bag reading books. Its where we sit together and read during the day and before bedtime. I don't know what it is about having a designated reading spot but he loves it and it really gets him to want to listen to books.

I am so excited to already have accomplished so much in my home and its only the second week of the year. Like I said, I have a couple more rooms to finish and I should be able to wrap that up in the next week or so. Have any of you started off the year with any organizational projects? Blog about them so we can see!